Bet Semi Cured Gel Nail Strips: Price | Application | Size | Conclusion
Semi cured gel nail strips started in Korea and has spread throughout the world. Nailart by Aria is the first nail artist founded gel nail strips brand and is a small business based in Taiwan. Backed with 8 years of experience as a nail artist.
Below, I will compare Nailart by Aria with 2 of the most popular Korean gel nail strips brands—Ohora and Dashing Diva. I will review them in categories that strongly effect how easy and fast you can apply them.
Best Semi Cured Gel Nail Strips—Price
| Nailart by Aria | Dashing Diva (Glaze) | Ohora |
Price | USD$9.9 (pre-order discount USD$6.99, surprise monthly discounts USD$8.4) | USD$10–USD$16 | USD$13.5–USD$20 |
Freebie | 1 free UV/LED light or USD$1 off on orders of 2 sets or more | None | 1 free UV/LED light on new orders |
Where to Buy? | Shopee Taiwan, Instagram, Storenvy (overseas) |
Price-wise Nailart by Aria is quite affordable smei cured gel nail strips. Since gel nail strips need to be cured, both Nailart by Aria and Ohora offer free UV/LED lamps. On the Ohora USA website, you only get a free lamp on your first order. But in Taiwan, Ohora gives you a lamp every time you place an order of 2 sets or more. It's quite annoying to accumulate all those lamps but I feel like I am missing out if they don't give me one. Nailart by Aria offers you two options: when you order 2 sets or more, you can choose to get a free lamp or a USD$1 discount, no matter if this is your first order or not.
Best Semi Cured Gel Nail Strips—Application
| Dashing Diva (Glaze) | Ohora | |
Thickness | thin | thin | thick |
Glue | strogn | weak | strong |
Curing | 60–90 seconds | 60–90 seconds | 90–135 seconds |
The thickness of gel nail strips strongly effects how easy it is to apply. Gel nail strips are semi-cured, which makes them flexible and therefore can act as nail wraps, once applied, you cure them to make them completely harden. However, even semi cured, there is still a certain hardness to them. Thinner gel strips are can better hug the curves of the nail surface and adhere. On the flip side, thick ones are harder and could make it difficult to bend them to the curve of your nails.
Ohora semi cured gel nail strips are really thick, so I often experience problems with getting the sides of the strips to adhere to my nails, and have to spend a lot of time and brute force pressing on them really hard. Which means it usually takes me about an hour to perfectly apply them. One of the huge advantages of gel nail strips is efficiency, this is obviously counterproductive. If I try to put them on quickly, I usually end up with gaps between my nails and the strips, which often catches and rips off my hair. What I like about Ohora though, is that the glue is very strong and adhesive, they can still be applied even if you accidentally touch the sticky side of the strips with your skin. When perfectly applied, they can last about 7–10 days.
Dashing Diva Glaze semi cured gel nail strips are very thin, which is one of their selling points, so they fit around your nails very easily, however, the glue is extremely weak. This is something that my nail artist friends all agree on, you would be quite lucky if they can last around 2–3 days. For me, one or two strips often mysteriously disappear after a single hair wash or blow dry.
Nailart by Aria stickers are both thin and strongly adhesive. Since they are thin and soft, Nailart by Aria semi cured gel nail strips can very easily wrap around the curves of your nails and are very easy to apply. I can complete a whole set in 10–20 minutes. The edges don't flip up, plus the adhesive is strong, They last at least 10 days even though I wash my hair every day, I have worn one set for as long as 28 days.
Best Semi Cured Gel Nail Strips—Size
| Dashing Diva (Glaze) | Ohora | |
Size | 1 sheet of 22 strips | 2 sheets of 16 strips | 2 sheets of 16 strips |
Ohora and Dashing Diva add up to have 32 strips in each set, but having more strips doesn't mean that you can use them more times. Each set from all 3 brands can be used 1–2 times when applied to all fingers depending on the size of your nails. Nailart by Aria's 22 strips per sheet offers more sizes to choose from. Ohora and Dashing Diva use the same size templates and the largest ones can barely cover my thumbs. I would have to stretch them out using the flexibility of semi cured gel. But it causes the colors to crack and leaves wrinkles around the edges that flip upwards.
Among my nail artist friends, are people with hands of all sizes. One girl with beautiful huge nail beds often shares polish swatches and plenty of gel nail strip brands reached out to her, but none of them fit her nails. Nailart by Aria is the first and only brand that has sizes big enough for her. If you have smaller hands, you can still choose from the smaller strips, if you want to use one of the big strips, you can also trim them down.
Since Nailart by Aria offers and array of sizes, I can even fit them on my toes! In fact, I can get my manicure and pedicure done in one set, without wasting any of the pieces. They also coordinate with my fingers so I look good even in sandals.
Another huge thing is the curve around the cuticles. Nailart by Aria and Ohora both have curves that fit the cuticles snuggly but Dashing Diva Glaze has a slightly trapezoid-like shape, especially the ones for the pinky, and are impossible to align with the cuticles. Which is also a huge factor that negatively affects their longevity.
Best Semi Cured Gel Nail Strips—Conclusion
Dashing Diva is quite cheap which I cannot dispute, but I honestly think the quality is abysmal. If you factor in how long they last, you'd have to replace them every 2–3 days, which means that they are actually more expensive in the long run. When I bought them, I felt like I was trying to get a bargain but failed miserably.
Ohora is one of the best Korean brand gel nail strips, and I bought several sets from them. It's just that the thickness makes them difficult to apply and do not come in enough sizes, which are quite troubling. The biggest problem is that they are very expensive.
Nailart by Aria combines the advantages of other brands while solving the disadvantages. They provide maximum convenience in terms of thickness, size, and freebies. They last long and are easy to apply. Plus they are super affordable. It's honestly my personal favorite and the most cost-effective option.
--
Don't forget to follow me on Instagram!
Lifestyle, workout, doggies: https://www.instagram.com/cheriearia/